Character Explorations Part Two: The Unclean
by Vesvius
Summary: A one-shot by Vesvius B that tells about the motives of the silent, and what he'll do to protect his friends. Part two of the Character Exploration series.


A/N: WARNING! WARNING! This is not for small children. Death is described in-detail in this story.

As you can tell by the warning, this is nothing like my previous works. It's a oneshot geared to get into the mind of an underused character. In this case, Shino.

Remember, I don't own anything.

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It was at a gathering of all the remaining Konoha Eleven when it was noticed.

Shino was acting strange. Well, strange for Shino that was.

He wasn't talking in that low tone he used among friends. He wasn't talking at all actually, not even with the insects that creeped everywhere. He wasn't reclining in comfortable silence, or even uncomfortable silence. No, Shino was looking around the room, staring at the faces of all the assembled comrades.

Naruto is the first and only one to notice anything at all, and it was only by chance that he did. His gaze caught the Aburame's and Naruto was suddenly filled with a sense of judgment. Not like he had done anything wrong, but like he was on one half of a giant scale that was weighing his very soul. Shino looked away, transferring that stare to Sakura, and Naruto only shook his head, chalking it up to one of those 'Shino' things.

He would have taken it far more seriously if he could understand what was going through the mind of the spectacled shinobi.

_Bugs swarmed the Iwa Ninja that had been preparing to fire a stalactite into the spine of Uzumaki Naruto. They went down his throat and buzzed, causing the man to choke to death. Naruto would never know why their prisoner had suddenly collapsed._

Shino's eyes fell on Sakura.

_The mans pores disgorged kikai like geysers, his flesh belching black death. He gasped out his knowledge, but it was far too late by then. Shino shook his head and recalled his colony, morning the loss of life. Not that of the ninja. No, that ninja would have raped Sakura before killing her. The loss of life he mourned was that of his insects. Those poor, poor bugs had had no idea that he was sending them to their death…_

His gaze turned to Ino.

"_Yamanaka, you have to." The team leader barked. "If you don't take care of him right now, I'll have you demoted back to genin for the next decade!" Tears streamed down Ino's face as shaking hands raised a kunai over the prisoner's throat. But she would never have to thrust as a swarm of bees invaded the room, their stingers delivering specially bred toxin into the veins of the prone 'initiation test' subject._

He looked at Chouji.

_Chouji smiled as he waved goodbye to his new friend, one who never should have been living in the first place. The overweight ninja turned to Shino with a smile and said "I'm sorry I had to drag you into this. But I just couldn't let them kill him! I mean, he did nothing wrong!"_

_Outwardly, Shino nodded. But this man, this new friend of Shino's, had been their mission objective. He had been ordered to die. And even though he applauded Chouji's motives, Shino was not one to disobey the ones who had given him those orders. The man who walked away wouldn't get back to Kiri. No, he would be dead of Malaria delivered by one of Shino's mosquitoes within ten hours._

His eyes settled on Kiba.

_Fleas. That was all it took to finally put Akamaru out of his misery. Kiba would have kept his precious dog alive for years after that battle wound, allowing the canine to get more and more miserable. Every time Kiba went out, his dog would long for his return, and would curse its own weakness at no longer being able to help his master. But a quick bite from infected fleas but that to rest, and sent the poor animal to peace._

His glasses shone as Shino looked upon Lee.

_As the green-spandex wearing Taijutsu prodigy entered his pose for opening the gates, Shino struck. A quick sprint and a slash of a poisoned dagger put the dangerous enemy down. As Lee began to babble that the man hadn't even gotten a chance to defend himself, Shino shrugged. "The mission is completed." Was all he said in that monotone of his._

Hinata sat there, oblivious to Shino's gaze.

_As their target glared, Shino watched as Kiba hugged the closest thing he had to a sister. Behind them, the Kumo nin who Hinata had just disabled glared daggers at the pair. Calmly, Shino struck with his trust poisoned dagger. At his teammate's stare, Shino lied through his teeth. "He was drawing a weapon."_

_But the man had to die. And his teammates couldn't do it. He wouldn't let them._

Neji sat in quiet contemplation as Shino weighed him with his eyes.

_Exhausted from too many jyuken strikes to count, Neji fell to the ground in the forest of death. Sadly, one of his opponent's teammates had evaded his entire onslaught, and now approached the downed genius with a drawn kunai. But there was a plopping sound, and the Konoha Forrest Leeches did their work._

_Neji would wake up later to three corpses and a heaven scroll. Kiba and Hinata would wonder for hours why it took Shino so long to go to the bathroom. And Shino? He would take pleasure in one of the only time he killed to protect someone physically. _

Shikamaru looked up, sensing someone's stare, but never actually looked at Shino.

_Before Shikamaru could even enter the stance for his Shadow Jutsu, Shino was there, enveloping the missing nin in a cloud of kikai. Before the withered husk that used to be a man fell to the ground, Shino was already walking away._

_Shikamaru would never know what to make of that situation._

Though she felt eyes, TenTen never looked up from sharpening her kama.

_TenTen drew her weapon back shakily, ready to kill. But her foe fell to the ground clutching her ears while shrieking. When TenTen later checked the wonan's corpse, all she found was that something had eaten through her eardrums and straight through her brain. Shino was long gone by that time._

Abruptly, Shino stood and nodded at all his companions. Before any could respond, he was out the door. Only once he was outside did he allow himself a smile beneath his high collar.

They had not killed except in self defense.

They had not touched death, nor brought it upon anyone.

Their Souls remained pure and untainted. His would not. But then, every Aburame's soul was tainted at birth from the unholy contract with Kikai.

Their Souls would remain pure. His would be ravaged slowly with killing after killing.

He would suffer so that they wouldn't have to.

After all, it was his duty.


End file.
